Video Of The Week: Highlights from Finals Day at Henley Royal Regatta, 2015

Yale on their way to winning the semifinal of the Ladies' Plate (Photo: RR Staff)

This week's video comes to us from the banks of the Thames, and features some of the most outstanding performances from the 2015 Henley Royal Regatta, which wrapped up yesterday after nearly a week of top-notch racing.

The clip is a montage of Matthew Pinsent's highlights from Finals Day, including looks at the Visitors', the Diamond Jubilee, the Temple (featuring the Dutch tradition of fans swimming out to congratulate the winning crew), the Remenham Challenge Cup (which saw the Canadian women's eight take on the Brits), the Ladies' Plate, and many more.



Let's talk about that last race we mentioned for a second: the Yale Bulldogs finished off a historic campaign with a surprisingly decisive victory over Washington, and one can only wonder about what could have been had Yale managed to carry their undefeated streak through the semifinals at IRAs this year—yes, the only race that the Bulldogs lost this spring was the semi at the IRA Regatta, and the real disaster was that the result saw them miss the A final in the varsity eight on Mercer Lake in May. Would Yale have been able to take down the Huskies at that time?

We'll never know, but it really boils down to this: Washington head coach Mike Callahan and his staff had their squad primed and ready to peak at IRAs, and they absolutely nailed it. Carrying that forward is always tough, and, looking down the boat, one could easily argue that Yale had the most talent of any crew in the U.S. this year, on paper. Into a headwind on the long course, that talent won out. But don't sleep on the Dawgs next year.

Still, Yale returns the majority of their top athletes for the 2015-2016 season (Steve Gladstone, as we predicted in 2011, is building Yale into one of the nation's elite programs once again)—here's hoping for a rematch in the IRA final in 2016.

Complete results from Henley Royal Regatta, 2015.

More reaction and analysis still to come from Henley here on RR, plus we're looking forward to another RR Instagram takeover with Australia's David Watts (M4x), as the international circuit heats up once again, this time for World Rowing Cup III in Lucerne.

-RR

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